I was looking back at some of my images on CNP. Found the above, comments from Adithya Biloor relevant even now !

"Just because a shape begins to form, does it become an abstract. so are you suggesting that you are looking at this image to create a degree of binding and not a degree of freedom ?"

For those who have joined CNP recently, we do have interesting conversations, we do have created a knowledge base (really?), they are worth looking at it. Well in this particular example of my image, image may not be relevant, but the text is You will have to dig in deep in CNP to find such interesting conversations.

Is there a doubt?! The kind of discussions we had so far on creativity and artistic expressions during past 8 eight years is something to be proud off. There is an immense learning and joy for those who are interested in searching through those image threads..

It is like private excavations happening in historic places like Hampi for the gold pots

BTW, why did we stop having such spirited discussions? Did we run out of ideas later? Did our visions became stereotypes and we became clueless and started feeling helpless?Did we separate ourselves from rest of world by brave experiments and didn't not get enough "likes" by traditional practitioners? Did we exhaust all ideas? I have posted such images earlier, can't post one more of the similar type worries? Did we think creation for creation sake is meaningless, got stuck and stopped exploring further? Did we explore/experimented too fast? Or we all got busy and other priorities of life demanded more time from us? all of it? some of it?

The fresh sprouts of Cassia tora (chagate gida in Kannada) needs arrival of the next monsoon to sprout again! Till then seeds are dormant under the womb of the mother earth. Of late I am enjoying some fresh visions. We did build a very strong foundation based on art and creative expressions. More novel/innovative/artistic floors will be get built over time from the newer pollination and mutations! Darwin lives on, forever...

Ganesh H Shankar wrote:BTW, why did we stop having such spirited discussions? Did we run out of ideas later? Did our visions became stereotypes and we became clueless and started feeling helpless?Did we separate ourselves from rest of world by brave experiments and didn't not get enough "likes" by traditional practitioners? Did we exhaust all ideas? I have posted such images earlier, can't post one more of the similar type worries? Did we think creation for creation sake is meaningless, got stuck and stopped exploring further? Did we explore/experimented too fast? Or we all got busy and other priorities of life demanded more time from us? all of it? some of it?

Ganesh: While these are thoughts to ponder for sure, I would like to point us to this brilliant video about the mortal fear of a Creative Person. Maybe that would provide an answer to the questions above?

So this thread is alive for almost an year! That shows how green the discussions are..

Back to the video, thanks for sharing it, Harsha. I vaguely remember seeing it in the past. I think she tried to address the same questions that we raised for the group (CNP) but she focusses on an individual artist. However, I think, there is one important thing which she did not touch.

Why do we fear? Why??

I think Darwin has the answer, that is the survival instinct which presents itself as the ego. The ego results in fear of judgement in us.

When does this (fear of judgement) starts? Not by birth, I think. During one of my talks an year ago I asked an apparently simple question to the audience:

what is 10+10?

Suddenly there was a silence in the room. After some time someone said:

It depends

Then came another answer:

1010

Followed a few permutations of such intelligent answers. I then asked a small kid in the room who accompanied his parents. He said:

20!

That is what I was looking for. Why grown up had difficulty with such a simple question? I think it is because of the fear of judgement. Will I look stupid if I say 20? must have haunted most of them in the room. Why did the kid not think that way? I think nature slowly starts implanting ego in us when it expects us to stand on our own and survive, not by birth.

Now, back to the original question & the video, we may have two solutions,

Keep the ego and attribute genius to an external spirit Or let go the ego which is preventing us from expressing freely

For the former one may need to believe in such possibility and may need to let go the reasoning and for the latter we need to contradict Darwin. Neither is easier said than done! At the end this becomes more of a philosophical debate.

Conversations here never go out of fashion Ganesh. They will always remain relevant for life.

Coming back to your point on Ego. I do agree the speaker has not mentioned on the "Why Fear" but yes, its ego which makes us fear. There is no doubt about it. And its ego thats hindering our expression. That said I dont think letting go of it is easy, or for that matter even desirable. Its a double edged sword, and its just a matter of which side you choose to cut on.

Let me put forth my view on why its IMPORTANT to maintain our ego's.

Personal ego is what makes us who we are. The sheer multitude and variety we see amongst ourselves is purely because of this. Letting go of this may unshackle our fear of rejection and make us more brave. But do we really need this? True we could get occasional blockbusters, but this would more of a fluke IMO. The braveness would be wasted as we would be blinded from our ultimate goal. And what is our ultimate goal, you may ask? It could be different for different people. When we express our creativity (in this context) we are doing so in our own unique way. Thats the spice which adds texture and uniqueness. Without this we would have nothing more than a spray which is bland and mass produced. This is a mirror image of the very thing we are fighting against on CNP IMO.

So no matter how hard we try its not possible, like you pointed out, to let go of it. And I say lets not let go of it. Lets just keep it alive so that when somebody asks who's hungry, we can stand up and say "I am"!